#whether theyre applicable or not
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#taking the apartment managers by the shoulders and shaking them#'for the 37th time i did NOT overpay on my rent i have a cat'#'this is cat rent STOP applying these credits to my account'#im going to have to call them again on monday#theyre very nice but also quite scatterbrained#and before anyone suggests that i should just let them not charge me for it#do you know how much trouble that kind of thing can land you in#its a lot#a lot of trouble#because nobody cares whether or not they actually paid attention or like. read your application#they only care if you made your payments#i agree that cat rent is absurd and shouldnt be a thing#however. it is.#and im not going to get in trouble over it
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so sweaty at work its actually revolting
#ambient in my lab is 30c at the mo..its abt 26 in the main lab but i have a smaller/less ventilated space#and i had a water bath on at 90c + incubator 55c. cant use a fan bc im working with respiratory sensitisers so dust inhalation risk#AND full ppe (long sleeve trousers closed toe shoes thick full length long sleeve labcoat p6 mask goggles hairnet nitrile gloves)#fortunately im done with the hands on stuff for the next 2 hours so i can prop the door open and put the fan on now#but when i took my ppe off my shirt was straight up fucking wet. not even just underarm sweat patches but the front + back too. YUCK!#good thing i anticipated this + picked out a v light/breathable outfit today but really i shouldve brought a whole change of clothes#and still no word abt when theyre putting the fucking aircon on. they said it MIGHT be later this week but no promises#not that itd help in my lab bc they didnt install a unit in there anyway..... we dont have the spaaaace#ik the reason theyve been so reluctant to install aircon is bc they have a new plot where theyre gonna remodel + build a new lab#so like in idk 2 yrs time this lab will be shut down and if im still working w them ill get a big shiny new application lab. WITH air con#separate from the main lab + installed w all the equipment we actually need so i dont have to run between both labs and canteen constantly#but whether ill still be here in 2 years... well its a big if. pay + benefits r good + i like the work + generally good environment#but there are many other labs in the world... some of which probably already have air con. and id like to work w plants again eventually#cuz my degree was in biology specialising in plant sci. not food/biochem (<- industry im in rn)#anyway. at least its taken my mind off how tired i am..... im gonna take a snack + water break and then i have some admin to do#happy wet beast wednesday everyone#.diaries
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is it unfair for me to hold anger at individuals, or criticize individuals, if covid minimization is not the result of individualized choices but mass messaging and systems at work? im not really sure what to say to leftists who ive spoonfed information who have still decided to “move on” from it, including in their activism. on one hand i understand how they got here, on the other it feels like theyre enacting violence, in the same vein as like misgendering or supporting “blue lives matter” but with the added bonus of them maybe also harming someone directly by refusal to do infection control. i really need to shift my perspective away from a heavily trauma-informed one and start living in the real world where i cant expect anyone to advocate for me, and have to find more systems-based ways to advocate for myself, and releasing some of that anger might need to be a part of moving on from that pov, but a lot of that trauma *is* individualized and resulted from the way people have responded to me, which varies from lukewarm apathy to actively telling me my life isnt worth anything to them. at the same time, it’s impossible for me to feel like i’m not the one in the wrong, when it’s very few people left who care about any of this. sorry for dumping this on *you*, im aware you’re some guy online, but the only ppl i see who still talk about covid are ppl in the same situation as me and are too close to it to assess, or think about it purely on an individual level
i don't think there's anything wrong, bad, or unfair about feeling this type of anger or betrayal. i just also think that this is one of those situations where a (completely understandable) emotional reaction does not form the basis of an effective political platform. both of these things can be true at once; your ethical considerations when navigating interpersonal relationships are not the same as the ethical considerations for someone who wants to style themselves a public health communicator. in an epidemiological sense, a person who reluctantly masks because orgs and public spaces have mask mandates is accomplishing the same thing, materially, as a person who happily masks because they care about their disabled comrades. in that sense there's no need for a public health strategy to focus on 'changing minds' and doing so often just makes people dig in their heels more. but, on a personal level, of course it matters to you whether someone actually cares for you and protects you voluntarily! figuring out how to interact with people in your own life is just not the same as figuring out the most effective mass communication and public policy strategies; what irritates me about many of the twitter-sphere covid communicators is the elision between these two things. having said that, if i can just soapbox for a second:
i try to give these people the benefit of the doubt; i do think many of them mean well and think they are doing what's right. however, the strategy that many of them have coalesced around seems to go something like this: assume that others are not covid-cautious because they are insufficiently frightened; assume this is a failure of individual intelligence-slash-awareness; using the same datasets as the applicable public health agency, interpret all data with any number of assumptions, predictions, and modelling heuristics built in; generate very terrifying infographic, post it, and wring hands when doing so doesn't change anyone's behaviour or state policy.
even in the best of cases i simply think this is ineffective; i would say public attitudes about the seriousness of covid are much more a result of state and public health inaction, ambivalence, and denialism than they are a cause. additionally, interpreting data and making predictions based on them is woolly, and a lack of transparency about their methodology, plus the overconfident desire to present themselves as authorities on the internet, means that this strategy can and does end up producing its own distortions. see, for example, recent 'med twitter' claims that "covid is airborne aids", an attempt to scare people into taking it more seriously that relies on poor and overconfident interpretations of current immunological knowledge; that ends up distorting what we do actually know about covid and the immune system (which is already fucking scary! no lies needed!); and which, as far as i can tell, actually started picking up steam in early 2020 as a right-wing conspiracy theory centred around the claims of dr (not an md) leonard g. horowitz, who argues that covid is a laboratory-engineered virus and uses it in his efforts to sell "resonating silver hydrosol" supplements to you (and your pets!) as "an effective alternative to risky vaccinations and deadly antibiotics".
getting into bed with these people is patently dangerous for obvious reasons. i really do not blame people who are trying to find reliable covid information, and are rightfully wary of state and official sources that have been downplaying this virus for its entire existence, for getting sucked in by twitter doctors when those people are often the only ones who seem to be both posting statistics and taking the virus seriously. however, what i have observed leads me to believe that, firstly, many of these people are motivated by a desire for renown and fame as much as by altruism (welcome to social media). secondly, virtually all of them are fundamentally very liberal in their politics, and this shows in the way they interpret the current state of affairs as a result of individual actions and psychological failures, rather than capitalist policy. this is absurd and leads to absolutely pointless (if not often counterproductive) narrativisation of political action as some kind of magical field where everybody just needs to change their minds and believe in the correct things really hard and then things will change: it's the liberal democratic fantasy that aggregated attitudes create policy out of thin air, no organisation or class analysis or principled communism necessary.
thirdly, a multitude of factors (incl. the paywalling and gatekeeping of knowledge) means that, although state and official interpretations of their datasets are often misleading or outright dishonest because they want to minimise risk, too often the self-styled 'covid communicators' online are not a solution to this and are prone to their own fallacious assumptions, conspiratorial thinking (see again: understanding politics as the product of many individuals believing something really hard, with no analysis of structural factors), poor data analysis, issues with comprehensive data collection in the first place (same as state sources. because they are usually using the same datasets), and a particular rhetorical emphasis on "listening to the science" that often manifests practically as a failure to actually engage with scientific methodology or to questionor improve it where it is lacking, incomplete, or bias-reproducing.
so. these are my issues with the state of covid communication; to me the question of how to navigate interpersonal relationships with people who don't value your life enough to protect it is just very different and the emotional engagement there is also quite different.
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What do you think the outcome of the AI debate will be? Does this differ from what you think it should be?
Do you consider it worth engaging in/with at all?
i dont think there will be any actual outcome because the debate in *this* form about whether it is or isnt art is useless precisely because its philosophical and doesnt have an actual answer. it also doesnt rly change anything in context of art being "expression of human emotion" or whatever. the only context i can see where ai status as art matters is the context in regards to art as a profession and that doesnt affect people making gay sex cats on their laptop or hobbyists who make art out of love. im talking about things like if ai should be allowed in applications for state fundings for visual artists, if it could be basis for joining artist guilds etc.
(p.s. you cant actually just show up and join the guild, at least not in my country - you need to have like 5 years of public activity as an artist, certain number of solo and collective and juried exhibitions completed with documentation, and your art has to meet some standard for you to be accepted.)
these are things concerning visual art as profession, not human soul or whatever. i think people keep using artist as a professional status and human activity interchangably, and it creates confusion. art as expression is humane and holy and all that, art as work and a profession is simply a category defining labour and has no moral value. same way like teaching, nursing, etc are job descriptions. artists shouldnt be above the working class. thats how arts were treated in ex-yugoslavia, where artists werent separated or holier than other people, but were a part of proleteriat. a lot of funding was being given to artists because art was supposed to be for everyone and cultural soul and food for people. (the "art is a luxury" argument has genuinly been getting on my nerves; idk who the fuck came up w it but art is a service like any other. i also believe artists have duties to their own compatriots, to provide art to the public and not just burgeoise. this is going to be taken out of context btw, but it does make sense under a communist state).
i think that this whole ai discussion is trying to elevate artists to something "grander than ordinary humans" when its rly not. the yearning wish to be acknowledged as an artist instead of prompter is a part of it as well, making the "artist" status to be the only way creativity can be recognized as worthy. i think the same of people who talk about art needing to have SOUL btw. in both cases the artist status becomes something soo special and important, when it rly shouldnt be.
the individualism of artist as an independent creator instead of a part of proleteriat collective is problematic.
anyway why do i care if ai art has art status or not? the closest example i can come up with are comics in croatian national funding, where things arent very clear. comics belong both to visual media... and literature. so for example, instead of applying for visual arts, we are required to apply comic books to the literary works funding. however, the commission prefers writers - so you have more money allocated to the writers than comic book artists, and theyre disproportionately granted. the grants are also the same amount. you get 21,000kn to write a book or draw a long form comic.
then, for example, i have an official artist status in croatia. comics are my primary activity - but see, there is no category for that. i can only be a sculptor, a painter, or a multimedia artist. and the closest thing to a comic artist is........a painter. and the requirements for the painter status require a set number of solo and collective juried exhibitions - in gallery and all. why should a comic artist who draws comics be required to participate in juried gallery exhibitions? the commission doesnt care about hundreds of pages ive drawn and the publications ive been a part of - they want exhibitions.
anyway sry for a horribly long post, but my point is that the art status of ai needs to be defined for *things like these*. in context of creative value it doesnt matter, but in context of craftmanship it might.
this might ALSO be because "umjetnik" (artist) in my language is mostly used as a defined status, while hobbyists will usually say "i dabble in art/drawing" instead of assigning themselves the label. its rarely used by someone who just likes to draw on the side. my official academic title is "diplomirani umjetnik", my national status is "samostalni umjetnik". to me the word "artist" is simply a descriptor of my job, so thats how i see and understand that word, but im realizing it might be different in the english language.
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It's so funny but mostly frustrating seeing the "maybe you weren't evil maybe you were just 15" post circulate tiktok and having every tiktok I see about it be a criticism of it making sure to point out that some 15 year olds were in fact evil.
I talked too much so I put it under a readmore jrkwkcjw
But I think here its universally understood that post isn't about them or for them. Its for the people who Thought they were evil and bad growing up or the people who were acting developmentally appropriate for that age.
I really don't think an ex-teenage bully is going see the quote and feel validated in their behavior. I mean probably some will but I really feel the vast majority of people who were heinous to others either 1. Know they were fucking mean back then and own it (whether that be bettering themselves or just continuing to be mean and just saying theyre an ex mean girl or whatever) or 2. The thought of them being evil had never crossed their mind before reading that in the first place.
My interpretation of the post has always been, its for the people who stay up late at night thinking about and regretting mean or bitchy things theyve done as a teenager that every teenager does. And I feel thats the general consensus here, or at least within the people I follow and follow me.
So its just. Idk weird seeing it be taken in a negative light, like people jumping at the chance to remind us that its not applicable to everyone, seemingly in fear that an "evil" person will see it and have the weight of their sins lifted off their shoulders like theyre forgiven for the harm theyve caused.
It feels so different yet also reminiscent of 2015 tumblr, well intentioned "friendly reminders" that ultimately are unnecessary and a little out of touch.
And I feel like an old man saying tiktok, but I also feel like an ignorant kid saying that i use tiktok as well.
Tiktok and tumblr and definitely very similiar in the demeanor of their userbases but I think from our perspective as long term tumblr users, its jarring seeing a face attached to the actions and opinions of the people on there and it makes it easier to think, "why would you say/do that"
I see a lot of really bad takes on tiktok but most are from uninformed children and teens probably but there's definitely shitty adults on there too. Same can be said for here but I think its easier for us to make that claim about tiktok because its kinda like an "us vs them" mentality.
But then again there is a lot of like. Loser attitude going on over there that I don't see around here. Like people being concerned about whats in style or stuff like that but again thats developmentally appropriate for the most part but also shouldn't be normalized because people should just wear whatever they want whenever they way wherever they want
Tldr I'm frustrated that a large group of people are playing devils advocate about a quote that was meant ( ih my opinion ) to soothe people living with extreme unnecessary guilt
#noop nooping#i mean for all i know the person who made that post was actually evil when they were 15 but why the fuck would i make that assumption#about a total stranger. thats a terrible way to live. assuming the worst of others and making sure others are aware of what the worst could#be in situations were its just not necessary
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Give me any and all the Shouhei/Sakuno headcanons, be they fluffy and cute, filthy and smutty, or angsty! Like, I just love everything you’ve told me about these two and I think they make a really good couple so more of them would make me very happy!
Ah i’m so glad you think they make a good couple cause they’re my fave 🤧 i want to make sure they’re interesting while remaining realistic
Before they even start their fling, Shouhei would always try to catch Sakuno’s attention at the award shows they attend aka a lot of alone time in empty hallways which includes whispers and stolen kisses.
Bandou and Kaoru once walked in on Sakuno straddling Shouhei’s lap as they makeout. Bandou is envious, Kaoru is disgusted, Sakuno is mortified and tries to get away from Shouhei, while Shouhei is just chilling and doesn’t let go of Sakuno’s waist
When they were fwbs, sakuno was the first to realize that she was falling hard for shouhei. It was when her group was traveling overseas and she finds out via twitter that he was with another girl, she starts feeling hurt and jealous, wondering why does she even care if they’re not dating. she can’t even bother kaoru or any of the other girls about it cause she’s hiding this whole situationship from them (and she knows that kaoru will be blunt and blame her for this mess). When they return to japan, out of spite, she ignores his calls and texts. She even tries to link up with some other guy, only for it to miserably fail. a few weeks of her giving shouhei a cold shoulder go by when he finally gets fed up and confronts her in her apartment
Shouhei spends so much time at Sakuno’s apartment, he ends up smelling like her floral scented body scrubs and lotions. Once, Chitose literally had to pull him by the collar and sniff his neck, wondering why the fuck does he smell like a girl. Whereas Sakuno makes sure she leaves some of her clothes in Shouhei’s apartment, so she has less things to pack whenever she stays the night. She also steals some of his shirts and hoodies when she gets ready to leave his place, treating them as a souvenir of some sort
He likes watching her get dolled up, especially if its for him. He even volunteered to apply her lipstick once, leaning close and carefully lining the applicator against her lips. But too bad he has shaky hands, so her lipstick ends up a mess and she needed to redo it otherwise she’s going to look like a clown (shouhei secretly takes a pic before she fixes her makeup)
When their relationship gets public, they don’t act all clingy and touchy, and keep their interactions limited. But people will know that theyre confirming the relationship when sakuno is seen wearing one of shouhei’s trademark caps
**NSFW**
Although they’re not into hardcore bdsm, they are very into bondage play. If he’s not using his belt, Shouhei uses Sakuno’s pink ribbons to tie her wrists up. Sometimes he even blindfolds her, rendering her useless while he has his way with her
They definitely fucked in front of the mirror in Sakuno’s bedroom. Sakuno personally likes glancing up at the mirror to see how she looks all sexed up during missionary, while shouhei likes to have a good view of him pounding into her from the back
Whether he’s kneeling down before her or she’s sitting on his face, Shouhei loves to bury his face between Sakuno’s thighs. He takes his time too; nose almost buried into her folds to take in her smell, leaving a wet kiss on her clit before he lazily starts to suck, his hands massaging her thighs and ass before slowly making their way up to squeeze her boobs. Shouhei moans while eating her out, the vibration giving Sakuno a wave of pleasure. He even spits inside her p*ssy
Sakuno wants Shouhei to fuck her raw and come inside of her, so she eventually starts to carry plan B around. At first, they experiment with him pulling out and spilling his cum all over her face, boobs, and stomach. When he finally cums inside her, he doesn’t pull out and keeps her as his cockwarmer for the night
While not extremely rough, Shouhei likes to think of himself as a gentle dom. He thrusts into her harder when she’s begging for him. He’s edged Sakuno a few times, smirking at her cries when he pulls away. Once Sakuno was being bratty so Shouhei “disciplined” her by throwing her across his lap and spanking her ass
Shouhei has thrown Sakuno over his shoulder multiple times while marching over to the bedroom (or anywhere they can fuck, really). But there also was a lot of times where he carried her bridal style or with her legs wrapped around his waist
Shouhei loves Sakuno’s tiny waist, marveling at how he can wrap one hand around it. He always has a hand on her waist, rubbing the dip of her torso as he pulls her in closer. Whether its during sex or while they’re simply cuddling in bed, Shouhei trails a path of kisses down her stomach, dipping his tongue in her belly button
Sakuno has a nice, perky set of tits that Shouhei likes. Not too big, not too small, but a good size to cup and squeeze with his hands. Sakuno’s moans while he’s sucking on one tit and squeezing the other with his rough hand will always be his favorite song.
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hey talk about Monogatari ships
YAHOO <- said like mario
although i do want to say that i dont really do many ships either so my ideas may not be sparkling... nevertheless it is a fun ask and i want to do it
i will try to keep big spoilers out of it for once!
ill mostly leave aside canon i think
ships i like:
sodachi/tsubasa: this ones a shout out to you. but also. it is very good... i always think of that idea of them bonding over cooking. not only would they be good for each other with each able to provide the kind of support they'd both need, but i think they'd understand each other too. its good 😌
hitagi/ougi: i dont think i would like this one seriously but its just really funny to imagine. araragi crying in the background, ougi being so confused... its so fucking funny
hitagi/tsubasa: i know this one doesnt work bc like the whole point is that its unrequited and all... but i still think its cute. two best friends and they're gay for each other? that's wonderful. i love it.
koyomi/shinobu: weirdly i do like it. wouldnt say i necessarily like it more than the canon koyomi/hitagi but theres something i can appreciate about how theyre stuck immutably together, bonded forever... once koyomi gets older we dont know how his lifespans gonna work, so theres something there about being lonely and solitary in the world except for just one person who you'll always be with whether you like it or not. it's not exactly a sweet or romantic type thing but its more like a 'you're all i have' melancholy sort of thing.... and thats interesting to me
tsukihi/nadeko: the classic i love this one yeah. i dont even think it'd be a super healthy relationship given how tsukihi is.... tsukihi. but thinking about how nadeko has been pining over her for so long i think itd be interesting, especially considering tsukihi would definitely not be as infatuated with nadeko as nadeko would be with her. and nadeko would have to put up with so much for it... they'd probably break up like every other week because of tsukihi's fickleness, or like have whole periods where they dont talk and nadeko thinks theyve broken up or are fighting and tsukihis just being tsukihi. 'the things nadeko does for love' is basically how i think of it. maybe she'd be better off just moving on... poor nadeko. not very good luck when it comes to love...
suruga/higasa: ok i said i wouldnt talk about spoilers so i wont talk about this one much. but i think they'd be cute together. i like how higasa sees through suruga. i think itd be super cute if she was teasing her out of like a crush. they should kiss
also any like specialist/specialist stuff i'd probably like, just bc we get so little of those guys that its cool to play around with their dynamics. maybe like yozuru/tadatsuru for like a kinda rarepair rivalry dynamic... i could see them as a divorced couple maybe. but really just. any of them. hell maybe theyre even a polycule who knows.
and also rouka/suruga is good but i dont really have any thoughts on it per se, i just like it a lot. its complex... its bittersweet... ya feel
ships i dont like:
koyomi/tsubasa: yeah p much everyone's talked about why this would never work. i might almost like it for like, the angst it would bring but i think it doesnt quite reach there either so its just meh.
koyomi/ougi: m..m... dont like it.. dont like it. i think their relationship is so much more interesting the way it already is so i dont really feel the need to see them in a romantic one yk. i dont think it would be good for either of them either... they will just stagnate if they stick around each other. and also this is like maybe not so applicable bc anything is possible in the ship world but. these two just would never. they dont see each other like that yk. if im looking from an analysis lens here, the camera which is mostly under koyomi's perspective that licks and slobbers over all the girls never does that for ougi. despite him thinking shes like "bewitching" (appearance wise but also probably in the other sense too lol) or w/e. i could write more about this and the harm i think it would do but it'd get spoilery and become a dissertation so ill leave it at this. ummm... dont like it. :p
deishuu/hitagi: ok i see people talking about this one a lot so i just have to put my foot down.. i think its meh. i think its whatever. i think kaiki is not and was not interested in her, and just saw her as a brat who was infatuated with him. and while i do think its possible or maybe even probable that hitagi was infatuated with him while he was scamming her bc she saw him as a savior... i dont think the infatuation would have been that strong. maybe just a little crush, but nothing serious. i wouldnt go so far as to call it love yk, if those feelings were there... and on the idea of that 'if,' i also think its way more interesting if kaiki only THINKS hitagi was infatuated with him when really she never was because it shows the flaw in his perception. like thats the kinda perspective cool thing i like in the monogatari series... thats why i like how its so vague in canon too. the ambiguity makes this dynamic interesting imo
suruga/karen: kind of dont have strong feelings about this one but i cant really see it. i dont think they'd be the right dynamic for each other and it'd become awkward...
ok thats all i can think of for now thanks for sending the ask >:3
#monogatari#ships#time to tag characters.......#ougiposting#oshino ougi#sengoku nadeko#araragi koyomi#senjougahara hitagi#kaiki deishuu#hanekawa tsubasa#araragi tsukihi#seiu higasa#rouka numachi#oikura sodachi#araragi karen#oshino shinobu
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If nurses do strike please remember
The media/government will try to villainise us.
Over the past few years nurses have had pay rises which have not matched the rate of inflation at all. Our staffing has been decreasing by people becoming burnt out and unable to cope with the demands. Especially post COVID.
The Tories cut the student bursary causing uni applications to fall & brexit affected nurses coming from overseas.
Oh and those 50,000 nurses Boris promised us included 19,000 nurses we already had. And even then they failed on that with 500 nurses leaving the profession every week.
We know the NHS isn’t great. But that’s because it’s severely underfunded and over abused. And like every great idea the execution needs to be done right. And they don’t want to do it right because that would take money out of their mates pockets.
So they’ll shift focus. The money going to their mates in private companies & the pay rises MPs get will be forgotten as they tell you all about those greedy nurses who were offered 4.5% and still not happy!
And they’ll try and convince you that if we do strike we’re horrible people just out for the money. We’re not.
Do you think any MP would be doing it if the highest salary they got is £30k? I don’t.
And don’t worry they’ll target nurses too. They’ll use the fact that we don’t want to put our patients in danger to make us doubt whether we should be striking.
They guilt trip us into thinking about what will happen if we don’t go into work even for one day. Doris will miss her chemo! Dave’s operation will be cancelled again.
But Doris & Dave deserve better. They deserve a nurse that’s not working 50 hour weeks to cover the cost of living. They deserve a nurse that isn’t looking after 14 other patients because theyre short staffed again. They deserve a nurse who isn’t burnt out and hating their job but can’t leave because they need the little money they get. They deserve a nurse who doesn’t have to feed her kids from a food bank.
We all deserve better.
But we won’t get it without action.
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what's your hc on the nations' (im)mortality? is prussia a weird exception that proves the rule for you? is the concept of life and death not applicable to the nations?
its applicable! theyre born and then they die eventually. they just live a bit longer. u can think ab it like, oh wowww hes 500 years old, but thats still a very small slice of how long the earth has been turning...
im strongly in the camp of "they spring out of the dirt" for how theyre born, but a lot of people prefer the "they were human once" angle—which is fair, because there was one guy that explicitly was human once, became a nation, then gave up that status to age normally again. they called him out as an abnormality, but i think thats a nice way to end their lives. if its "they dissolve into dust instantly" vs "they age and die normally" i prefer the latter...
the immortality stuff is VERY VERY fun! i have a lot of thoughts on how the aphws universe works. i think their lives are dependent mostly on a group identity, somewhat on a land claim, and 0% on a political entity. i also think the Way They Work changed a lot with the modern age. like how in canon the fantasy elements faded as the world modernized, the Way They Work became a lot more grounded with that. theyre less fantastic than they used to be.
OK BORING STUFF OUT OF THE WAY
LET'S GO OVER WHY PRUSSIA IS MODERN DAY KALININGRAD OBLAST
left: a screencap of a map of russia from Wikipedia. whoa whats in that red circle! its an EXTERNAL RUSSIAN TERRITORY thats KALININGRAD OBLAST
KALININGRAD aka KÖNIGSBERG aka THE MODERN DAY LARGEST CITY AND ADMINISTRATIVE CENTER OF THE OBLAST
left: CAPITAL OF EAST PRUSSIA WAS KÖNIGSBERG
right: kingdom of prussia's capital was berlin yeah BUT
IT WAS FORMERLY KÖNIGSBERG
now whether u think aph prussia is more aligned with Old Prussia or believe he began life with the Teutonic Knights, its irrelevant. this is both.
"what happened to him being east germany?" u may ask
he played that role yea he went with the soviets during the whole wall thing. what im saying is that he never really went back afterwards. ummmm
"hes german tho?" hes prussian, first of all. second of all,
timeline to me is sm like ....... post wwii hes a russian territory. berlin wall goes up hes like "ummmm actually dont hurt my kid brother im BASICALLY east germany. berlin was MINE TOO" etc etc. borders cant contain him. he takes one for the team once again. because hes a good guy fubin sad little man etc
On 4 July 1946 the Soviet authorities renamed Königsberg to Kaliningrad[27] (...) The remaining German population of Königsberg was forcibly moved to Germany in 1946–1949, and the city was repopulated with Soviet citizens (as a part of the agreement between the Allies and the Soviet Government). The city's language of administration was changed from German to Russian. (rip)
The city was rebuilt, and as the westernmost territory of the USSR, the Kaliningrad Oblast became a strategically important area during the Cold War.
[x]
"in hetaliaverse what would that fucking mean lmao" nothing good! beyond that dont worry about it i guess. im waiting for this exact subplot to resurface in one of my fav fics rn
prussia + russia dynamic :'(
thanks for coming to my hetalia ted talk
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Since i know you said this was the end of the xiao talk, i’ll keep this pretty breif
people tend to stay away from Xiao because they are very closed off and only speak to their friends, but it’s not that hard to get to know him and appreciate things. Yes, he’s made some mistakes, but he’s being blamed for a lot right now, which i don’t think is really fair. Plus the heavy lack of proof on things lol.
as for where you said you might apply for mod, that would be interesting. You’d continue to run the blog i’m sure, but I feel like you’d might run into a few troubles trying to handle both. If you do however, i’d be excited to see where that heads. your judgment is good on a lot of the topics that come up here, it would be nice to see your stance on things.
sorry i’m aware this isn’t really a vent. just thought i’d state my mind !
post related
yeah i can understand people not liking someone just out of not liking them, but its a different beast when people come in my inbox saying that they were WHOLLY responsible for the Reckoning. like i feel like thats just factually incorrect. you dont need a moral reason to dislike someone, sometimes you can just say someone annoys you.
as for the mod stuff, i would love to apply for mod when/if applications open. with bug and coy in charge it felt very cagey and honestly kind of imposing, but im very inclined to apply now just from the fact that tycho went out of his way to reach out and talk directly about critique (yk, the stuff that actually holds weight, not us just going “coy sux lol.” its fun to make the jokes but someones gotta sit here and sort out the real critique from the shitposting lol), it really gave me a good feeling and i have a lot of hope knowing he has executive control now.
youre right about the troubles with handling both. i honestly dont know if i could hand the blog off to someone else since ive kind of made it circle around my own voice but i think that i wanna implement new rules on here just to make it more palatable (mainly the namedropping stuff)
i think if i did get on the mod team i would keep the blog running but maybe make some changes to things here, just stuff to maybe curb back the way that topics got pretty aggressive. i think it could be interesting to have a direct line of contact from anons to the mod team, and with the fact that theyre probably never gonna bring back anonymous suggestions, i think i could be able to sort out the stuff that holds no weight from the stuff that actually makes good points and pass them along.
and im unsure if i would even make it known whether or not i became a mod because a. privacy concerns, and b. i wouldnt want to make any other members uncomfortable because i know that vent blogs like this are really polarizing.
i have some stuff to think about with this, and keep in mind the whole thing IS a big “if.” in the event i apply and dont get accepted then we can have anon funtimes as usual
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aidays playlist breakdown: chapter 3
writers block is kicking my ass right now so instead of fulfilling my promise to finish aidays by november im just gonna churn out a couple of these. sorry. (end of the year. probably. writing is really hard.)
here's the fic
here's the playlist
the one by carly rae jepsen
ms carly slay jepsen back at it again with another song about casual sex with absolutely no strings attached at all ever. easy breezy. don't even worry about it.
(ID: "Truth is I never thought of us together / You're just a friend of mine / We should know better, this can't last forever / But kiss me one more time". End ID)
this is sooooo them bc they should know better! they do know better! but here they are anyway! sokka and zuko entered into this thing with the intention of it being unserious and temporary. theyre just people who have sex, and then they become friends who have sex, and then friends starts to turn into something...else. but they've set these boundaries, so they can't be something else, so they pretend it's not happening. they keep saying casual and acting like their feelings aren't there, just to hold on to what they have, in the hopes that it'll be enough.
(ID: "Romance is fine / Pour me some wine / Tell me it's just for the fun of it / Thoughts in your eyes / Hard to deny, but / I don't want love, don't want none of it". End ID)
this part of the song is the most applicable to chapter 3 i think. the scene where sokka asks zuko to catsit while he's away at yue's wedding is so thick with romance it's a wonder they don't fucking choke on it. that whole exchange is so. like. they're lying to themselves. sokka gives zuko a key to his apartment. 24 hour access. a promise not to turn him away, that he is welcome and wanted always. and they both somehow convince themselves (and each other!) that this is a normal thing to offer your casual sex friend. olympic level mental gymnastics happening in that scene.
(ID: "If you want to, you can stay the night / I don't want to be the one, the one / IF you want to, you can hold me tight / I don't want to be the one, the one". End ID)
this is the mindset. sokka gives zuko a key to his apartment, but they're super casual. zuko sleeps better beside sokka than he has his entire life, but they're not dating or anything. they talk every day even if they don't see each other, but it's not like they're in love, right? right. they can do all of these romantic things, make all these gestures and be there for each other, and it's completely fine as long as they remind themselves that it's casual, it's casual, it's casual.
valentine (what's it gonna be) by rina sawayama
another casual relationship banger, but this time it's anxious!!! this song just scratches something in my brain. idk how to describe it i think there's drugs in this
(ID: "I don't think about the future (It doesn't matter) / Or whether we'll stay together (Whether we'll part) / Making promises is dangerous (I'm just a phase) / I'm just your valentine". End ID)
they're casual, right? because anything else -- dating from the start, admitting feelings when they're in the thick of it -- is setting themselves up for failure. they met in a dirty bar and hooked up in the bathroom before going home together, this can't last. this can't be the great love story of their lives, right? right? so this is again, still, the lie they tell themselves. it doesn't matter, it's just a fling, i'm just your valentine.
(ID: "Nowhere else to go / Turn to you but I hope you know / This love is just for show / One night and nothing more". End ID)
the contradiction of "nowhere else to go" and "this love is just for show" is exactly the kind of bullshit zuko and sokka are trying to get away with. this isn't a relationship and there are no real feelings involved and we're just having fun, but no one else would have me and i don't want anyone but you. god. they're so fucking stupid.
house key by scott helman
YEAHHH BABY LET'S GET YEARNY!!!! LET'S GET SOME PINING IN HERE
(ID: "I wanna back splash and a house cat / I wanna make a home for you / I wanna T.V. and a settee / I wanna live alone with you / And when you wake up in the middle of the night / I won't complain if you turn on the light / Beside me you'd be happy you'll see / Can I get your house key? Can I get your house key?". End ID)
this song was not inspiration for this chapter bc i didn't know it existed until i'd already published, but it very well could've been written about this fic. this song is the dead of night, when it's too quiet and dark for anything but the truth. it's all the cards held close to the chest, all the secrets kept even from yourself. the agonising knowledge that this is real, this could be something, it could be everything, it probably already is.
lover by taylor swift
let's just get into it i can't talk about what this song means to me without sounding even more deranged than i already have in this post
(ID: "And there's a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you, dear / Have I known you twenty seconds or twenty years?". End ID)
this is the thing with zuko and sokka in this fic. they hit it off immediately. they click. the "getting to know you" phase doesn't feel like learning, it's like remembering. it's just like carly rae jepsen says in her smash hit single call me maybe, "before you came into my life, i missed you so bad". always right. anyway this line makes me want to bite my own fingers like carrot sticks
(ID: "Can I go where you go? / Can we always be this close? / Forever and ever, ah / Take me out, and take me home / You're my, my, my, my lover". End ID)
this is what love is. this is it. can i go where you go ("i wish you could be here to see it"), can we always be this close ("do you want to take the long way?"), forever and ever ("i wouldn't want to be stuck with anyone else"). that's love.
(ID: "My heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue / All's well that ends well to end up with you / Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover / And you'll save all your dirtiest jokes for me / And at every table, I'll save you a seat, lover". End ID)
this is what i'm TALKING ABOUT!!!!! like!!!! all's well that ends well to end up with you equals nothing safe is worth the drive equals every moment of heartache is worth it to be together at the end!!!!! they have each been through so much, both separately and together. i have personally forced them to have so many problems. but this is what it's all for. this is the goal. this is what they get to have, when the dust settles and the sun finally shines on them: dirty jokes and a spot beside their lover. simple pleasures made grand by true love.
#once again i do not know how to end this#whatever this is the internet i can just say things it doesnt have to make sense#anyway! had a breakdown writing this bc i listened to lover and realised i am deeply deeply lonely#so i might get some good prose out of that bottomless pit of despair#mine#aidays#my writing#zukka#i always forget how to tag this
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I just now decided to do this bweirdOCtober challenge, for my newest set of OCs! only the days that're applicable though.
day 2: new OC. for this one I'm just posting the plot summary for all 3 of them.
so first, what the story is: (and I'm just copy pasting this from my notes, so excuse any inconsistent typing patterns.)
It's this weird story that's from an alien culture but it got localized over to English. And the localization kept the grammatical fuckery (which includes all pronouns having distinct separate forms for whether they're referring to a person [indicator 1] or an object [indicator 2], and all possessives having distinct separate forms for whether the subject owns the object or neither/vice-versa) but it converted all the actual names of things/people/places/etc to common English/human-society names for similar stuff.
Like if the Ace Attorney localizations had the thing that Umineko: When They Cry has where it explains what certain Japanese cultural things mean, but they still said it was set in California and replaced ramen with hamburgers.
and now the plot summary itself, under the cut:
So there's this spaceship and it's some sort of secret high tech military type ship, or something. And the human (well, alien) main character is this action hero girl type. She's been given some kinda job there on the ship, but really she's been hired by the like higher ups at the CIA adjacent thing to investigate and take care of some fucky stuff suspected to be going on on the ship. Corruption in its command hierarchy. And she starts investigating like lower level suspicious ppl but they keep showing up mysteriously dead before she can get any info from them. (Also, she seduces another woman-adjacent character to get information, because obligatory love-interest arc.)
So she's trying to solve these mysterious deaths and investigate the what she was sent there to investigate at the same time. And in the process of investigating some fuckery higher up in the ship's command hierarchy, she gets found out. And then things get all action-y as she's officially declared wanted (because she can't tell them who hired her for this as it has to stay secret) so she's hiding in the vents and sneaking around and stuff. And also along with investigating, she's been having to deal with (and hack her way past, and stuff) robots controlled by the ship. Which are now also actively against her… But they don't seem to be quite as dangerous to her as you'd think. And also, starting before this point, there's been parts from the ship's or the robots' point of view as it gathers info on her and helps the crew try to track her down and stuff. Also around this point is when it's revealed that the ship was the one that killed the people she was investigating.
(It's probably third person POV though, readers don't get to see the characters' thoughts except sometimes. It's just like which side of events get seen.)
And then it's evenly her POV and the ship's POV for a while, until she gets captured or something, and from there it's mostly the ship's (and then, after a lil bit more from her, it's Entirely the ship) and this is when the subplot that's been going on becomes the Main plot - and this plot is that the ship has been having some fuckery going on itself, it's more sentient than people think. (Also the ship talks very personlike but uses indicator 2 for itself because it's a machine. It's got Alexa type vibes.) And the ship's robots have been increasingly going rogue… but soon it becomes more apparent that it's actually the ship itself going rogue, but being stealthy about it. Eventually the people aboard figure it out, and start trying to stop the ship by getting into its computers to shut it down or damage its systems.
Things start looking like theyre going to go badly for the ship there, until the human* character (who the narration hasn't mentioned in a hot minute) shows up and shoots some shit and saves the ship. (Also at some point, not sure when, the ship starts using indicator 1 for itself.) Then there's more action scenes, but now with the person and the ship working together. (And also maybe it's implied theres sexual tension between them somehow. The localization tries to make the human* seem like less of a robofucker, but that fails. Badly.)
And then they figure out wheres the corruption is in the command hierarchy and stuff, and take care of it. The human* goes to report it to her superiors, but then they're like "Cool, now turn off the malfunctioning AI so we can collect the ship and get everything covered up" at which point she is like "Fuck You the ship is my friend now." It's implied here that the corruption goes further than she'd realized, even up to her own employers. This is a sequel hook moment, but I don't think I'll write a sequel, so the official ending is that the human* and the ship (and the love interest who was introduced and became plot irrelevant afterward, but here is brought back into plot-relevance by the localization in a failed attempt to make the human* not look like a robofucker) fuck off together and just chill.
#psii.txt#my ocs#localized story#oc-tober#bweirdOCtober#my writing#ish#havent named the human* characters yet but the ship is called#Cutter#the name came to me in a dream
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can we see the xeno kin onion? and can we have details?
buckle up
things of note:
the entirety of tv tropes as a kin
the reason koolaid man is on here at all is the age old question of whether the koolaid man is liqiud, or jar. it's about the futility of dividing your sense of self based on your anatomy, yasee
a callback
this image file used to be a slow creeping jumpscare, wherein, steadily, everyone would fade out and be replaced by the daunting of figure of one overpowering elsa. it is no longer a gif because i am incredibly lazy.
a quick shoutout to entrapta/technus, who are the two voice claims i pingpong rapidly between while writing xer dialog. that, and the tumblr skeleton voice
you may notice the harley quinn, who is taped lazily over another character, which is taped over a third character. the character harley is overlaying is Jack Walcott of Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series, which are Very Good Books and someone should talk to me about them.
the character jack is dethroning is rick sanchez. unfortunately. rick sanchez is applicable in the context wherein xeno is picking xer own kin onion, to which xe is identifying maybe a little to heavily with complicated family dynamics. it's 0% about intellectual superiority.
as to why harley quinn, the Only Resident Non Mad Scientist, is there, i can elaborate Zero Percent.
having developed xer more since i made this, i think there are a few changes i would make here. namely, i'd flip dr. horrible and dr. manhattan? dr. horrible was mostly a 2000s nostalgia pick, but dr. manhattan is xer Blue Nudist Son who xe probably cries about on the regular. radioactive man who's been severed from his humanity and sense of emotion is infinitely more relatable than sad niceguy sciencevillain who didnt get a girlfriend.
like rick sanchez, i think there's a "xeno picking xer own kin onion" layer of tragedy going on with mr. manhattan. xeno is defined by this crunchy curiosity, a sort of bursting emotion for humanity- for xer to become someone like mr. manhattan would be to scrape out everything that make xer xerself. anyway,
i would also put frankenstein at the core. i'll let you decide whether im talking about the doctor or not
i'd also put kel (omori) down somewhere, because honestly, as crucial as all the mad science vibes are, theyre mostly set dressing for what is a scrappy individual with a bright disposition who's ready to punch out someone for xer friends at a moments notice, no matter how ineffectual it is.
i feel like its important to mention that im finally watching reanimator while i type this.
anyway ty for listening to me talk extensively about what my oc thinks of other media characters. is this content? is this content creation? iunno ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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i'm sorry but it shouldnt be considered this terrible social faux pas horrendous act if i go and contact a hiring manager and ask if theyre ever going to get back to me about my job application. like why should i have to wait over a week for you to decide whether or not you want to interview me. not even hire me but interview me. or at least contact me by email and tell me you're looking over my application because the fact that the website just says its "in progress" with no explanation of what that means is absolutely annoying
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American Jobs:
NO ACTUAL "entree-level" positions.
a requirment for ALL people regardless of age is to have experience for pretty much ALL jobs. Being a waiter "requires experience." Doing laundry "requires experience". Being a cashier "requires experience." •
This is because there is No job training.
Not enough people working because nobody has experience, because there is no job training.
People working WAY too long hours, because there is not enough staff, because there is no job training. Have no legal requirement for a "set" schedule.
Your day off is not written in stone. It can be forcibly taken away from you at a moment's notice, and if you refuse to come in for work on your day off, you can be fired, whether you're sick or not.
Pay you hardly fucking anything. Certainly not enough to afford rent.
not enough people working because people are constantly quitting because they're being overworked (and underpaid) because there aren't enough people because TRAINING ISNT. A THING.
Companies have decided it is more profitable to overwork people who have managed to break into the "experienced workforce" part of the population, instead of providing training to people with zero experience, hiring many people, and having them all work short hours.
It should be illegal to constantly be understaffed. Companies purposefully understaff to save money. Companies purposefully do not account for sickness or employees ACTUALLY using their days off. Companies call in workers on their days off CONSTANTLY. WHETHER THEYRE SICK OR NOT.
What They need:
Training services should be legally required for labor jobs that don't REALLY need degrees, so more people are able and allowed to get jobs
More staff hired. Operating a business understaffed should be ILLEGAL. Shorter work days. 4 day work week.
It should be legally required for it to be the responsibility of the manager, and ONLY the manager- To find a replacement for someone's shift if someone takes the day off. That is what managers are literally for
Managers should always have enough staff hired that they never need to cover a shift themselves, and can easily find someone to cover the shift without pressuring someone to give up a day off.
Paid sick leave should be required by law. ESPECIALLY in the food industry.
Higher pay. Almost NOBODY can afford rent anywhere in America. People with ANY job deserve to afford Rent, Food, and Medical care
Options for people who do not have addresses (homeless people)
Options for people who do not have the internet or phones
Options for disabled or mentally ill people. There are many barriers to actually getting a job (people being required to be able to lift "50 lbs", actual interviews themselves requiring eye contact and questioning that will not be relevant to job performance, jobs requiring cover letters and resumes for positions that are entry-level) ALL of these should be removed. Every single one.
Anti-Ableism training
Anti-Racism training
Anti-Religious Discrimination training
Anti-Sexism training
Anti-Transphobic training
Human Resources departments that ACTUALLY make sure that the job is humane, and take complaints seriously. HR depts that help people fill out applications, HR depts that help people fill out time sheets. HR depts that explain, in-depth, EXACTLY what you need to do to get paid (tell you EXACTLY what documents you need, when you need them, how to submit them, what they look like). HR depts that include mental health care, like counselors, for people with mental illnesses
It should be required that you get paid accessibly. You should not need a bank account to get paid. A check or cash.
Uniforms should be given FOR FREE.
Gas to work should be PAID FOR by your employer.
You should not need to invest ANY money whatsoever in order to work or get a job, NONE.
It has been PROVEN that environments that are short staffed or jobs that have long hours or jobs that underpay people DECREASE PRODUCTIVITY. and are INHUMANE and bad for people's actual literal health and wellbeing
TLDR: It should be easy for anyone and everyone to get a job. Jobs should have more staff so the job is easier. Jobs should pay more. Work hours should be shorter. Schedules should be consistent. It should be free to get a job. It should cost absolutely zero money to get a job.
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RE: keeper polyglot abilities REAL. i am also immensely jealous of it bc it has SO MUCH PRACTICAL APPLICATION... it would definitely be interesting if it worked for fictional languages!! i would hope so but also feel that it might rely very heavily on whether the language was constructed with grammatical/phonetic structure and not in the... sense? direction? of just being "foreign noises"? but on the other hand i would also laugh if she was able to understand simlish or whatever it's called
DJDJDJD IMAGINE. she for whatever reason starts playing the sims and fully understands it all
i mean.. like i play sims four on occasion and when the radio plays you can def tell what songs theyre supposed to be. so if there’s any logic or structure to simlish… a person could prolly figure it out (idk if there is i am betting not)
or like fuckin. endermen
although ig the only reason she can understand silveny is bc of her horse dna is there ever an instance where she talks with an animal other than the alicorns. man it has been so long since ive read any of those books
#starting to feel like those millenial harry potter enjoyers 🥲#except even there id be on the young age lol#i started reading them in… 2016? 2017? idr#it was for a competition tho so for a bit my whole irl friendgroup were obsessed#that was……….. a time!#ask#soryasongsaa#pen and ink
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